Personal Finance 30-Day Challenge #3: Prepare your tax return accurately and file early (March, 2019) |
- 30-Day Challenge #3: Prepare your tax return accurately and file early (March, 2019)
- Weekend Discussion and Victory Thread for the week of March 01, 2019
- My dad wants to sell me his 2015 BMW for $5k - I don’t know enough about cars.
- [Advice] I'm 21 years old and today I got my first credit card, what are some basic and not so obvious things I should know?
- CC Company marked my account as in bankruptcy by mistake and has been refusing my payments. Now they are raising my balance and reporting to my credit that I'm missing payments.
- I travel a lot for work, nearly 10% of my salary last year was spent and reimbursed for travel. How can I best take advantage of this?
- Should I continue to divide by "savings" from my paycheck in a Emergency/401K split... or move it all to 401K?
- Is it okay to take out a personal loan to cover trade school? Would an interest free credit card be a better idea?
- Underpaid on taxes: it is what it is?
- Debt vs. savings
- Would Eloping Help With My Cost of School?
- Roommate ditched without paying full in bills and left his room a disaster. What can we do to ensure we don't go under the next few months?
- First Time Getting A Car Loan, Am I doing this right?
- Beginner small investing
- Moving from High-Yield Savings to Passive Investing
- I just removed myself from pledging to a fraternity this quarter but already paid $700 for pledging already. If the fraternity denies a refund, would I be able to refute the charges from my bank?
- Fell for Social Security Scammer
- Question about Ally Bank savings account
- How do I start making my money make more money?
- How do you know if you have to pay taxes quarterly? (US)
- Did I give a family member bad advice? She has been paying off her credit card the day after EVERY purchase for 4 years.
- Buying a house this summer
- Feedback on my investment strategies?
- Commute vs Rent?
- Lazy Portfolio Returns Feb 2019
| 30-Day Challenge #3: Prepare your tax return accurately and file early (March, 2019) Posted: 01 Mar 2019 05:08 AM PST 30-day challengesWe are pleased to continue our 30-day challenge series. Past challenges can be found here. This month's 30-day challenge is to Prepare your Tax Return Accurately, and File Early. You've successfully completed this challenge once you've filed your US federal income tax return by March 31st. Recommended Steps: Plan
Prepare and file your Tax ReturnUsing one of the following methods
By starting early, it allows you more time to deal with unanticipated questions about your tax return. "Wait, can I claim my girlfriend as a dependent"? "Do I have to report income from renting out the spare room in my house to a friend?". When these come up, feel free to create a new post asking for help with as much details as you can provide. [link] [comments]  |
| Weekend Discussion and Victory Thread for the week of March 01, 2019 Posted: 01 Mar 2019 01:05 PM PST If you need help, please check the PF Wiki to see if your question might be answered there.This thread is for personal finance questions, discussions, and sharing your success stories:
A big thank you to the many PFers who take time to answer other people's questions! [link] [comments]  |
| My dad wants to sell me his 2015 BMW for $5k - I don’t know enough about cars. Posted: 01 Mar 2019 08:03 AM PST My dad asked me if my fiancé and I are interested in his car. I have a 2009 Mazda 6 with around 150k miles - it appears beat up from city driving but passed inspections after an accident this summer. My fiancé is paying off his 20?? Hyundai Elantra (honestly I might be wrong, I never see his car b he parks it at work and I'm uninformed about cars) this spring and then getting rid of it because it'll be too expensive to pass inspections in the state he moved to. We don't plan to replace his car because we rely on public transportation for work. My dad is deciding what to do with his 2015 BMW X1 and offering it to us for $5k, which is what he owes. It has 102k miles and a private blue book of $12.5k. He gave me a few other options.
My fiancé says upkeep on a BMW is significantly more expensive and isn't keen because of that. How true is that? What's the best move financially? For more context my student loans are 3.5k, pay off CC every month, but I would need my emergency and wedding savings to buy this car from my dad. Fiancé's student loan debt is bigger, cc debt is 5k, his car will be paid off and gotten rid of this spring. Edited to add more info from my dad below. "It's a good car...I will keep it for you if we don't need it. We can figure out money later. XYZ does most of my work now and they are reasonable. Premium gas does add some cost. —I just replaced brakes and tires are pretty new...have 25,000-30,000 miles left on them. It will cost about $650 for four new tires, but it will probably take a while for you to drive that distance. —Oil change is same cost-synthetic oil costs $85 but good for 15,000 mi. —no problems with mechanical systems." [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 01 Mar 2019 02:20 PM PST |
| Posted: 01 Mar 2019 01:23 PM PST My CC company made an error and marked my account as if I was putting it in a bankruptcy. I am not. I am not filing for bankruptcy, my credit was actually near perfect before this happened. It was a new card and when I went (two days before due date) to make a payment they refused. I tried paying online, over the phone, and with a representative and they all refused payment. Support said that there's nothing they can do and it will take 30-60 days to investigate and resolve the issue. I called again last week to try and make another payment and was told that I would receive something in the mail in the next 60 days and that calling would do me no good. Since then they have reported that I've missed two payments and am over 60 days late, and they've raised my balance 100 dollars for penalties tied to those "missed payments." I am absolutely furious. They won't talk to me on the phone, and they're single handedly destroying my credit when I had 100% payment history and was planning to buy a house in the next month. What do I do to get this fixed and get the marks removed from my credit? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 01 Mar 2019 06:22 AM PST Like the title says last year I had to put about $5,000 USD on to credit cards and then get reimbursed through travel (never paid interest on it). I don't have a corporate card, this is all going on my personal accounts. I opened a travel credit card with American Airlines for the bonus offer, but was wondering if there is anything else I can do to make the most of this situation. I'll be traveling a decent amount again this year, and likely a lot (although less than I currently do) next year. Should I just keep opening new cards for bonus offers, or is there something smarter? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 01 Mar 2019 07:12 PM PST I put 20% of every income check to "savings": I have three categories for it to go to
Right now as is, I have 8% going to the 401K, and the past month have been putting the remaining 12% straight into my emergency fund savings account. Should I keep doing that? Or should I that until I reach a certain point - i.e. until I have 1 months income built up in the savings account and then reduce, so I have 8% to 401K, 8% to savings, then the remaining 4% to the mutual fund, that way it balances out? Or maybe I need to add in a third "savings account" for future purchases. ie house/car/etc that I WILL SPEND willingly, unlike the emergency fund that I WILL NOT unless needed. So I can save up little by little to SPENDABLE money, without mixing it with retirement/emergency/investment accounts [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 01 Mar 2019 05:59 PM PST Posting for a friend. He's set to start trade school to be an electrician in the next few months. The program is 9 months long. He'll have to commute approximately 160 miles per day, 5 days a week. He's planning on working 4 hours per day before school. After all his financial aid is in, he'll still owe the school about $5k that he needs to come up with somehow. In addition, he estimates that he'll need to borrow about $500/month to cover the rest of his expenses since he's not working full time (and will be driving so much more). Is a personal loan the best bet for this? Approximately $5k for his balance to the school and $4.5k for his expenses during that time? Would it be prudent to only take out a personal loan for $5k and open a new interest free for 12-15-18 months credit card to put his other $4.5k expenses on? He'll obviously be spending a lot on gas, so a credit card with rewards could be okay? And then if he's not able to pay off the balance of the card before it incurs interest, he could take out a personal loan to pay it off at that point? He has excellent credit and is financially responsible. Any better options for this? Thanks for the advice. [link] [comments]  |
| Underpaid on taxes: it is what it is? Posted: 01 Mar 2019 07:33 PM PST Hi folks, long story short; I didn't check my W4 allowances after being married. Am short ~7K this year. Pay the man and move on? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 01 Mar 2019 10:57 AM PST Hi everyone, Here's my situation. I'm 44 with 28,000 in debt on an income of 52,000 a year. I'm trying to get my finances in order. $25000 of the debt is a personal loan and the other $3000 is a credit card. I went through a divorce that wrecked havoc with my finances. I read Dave Ramsey's book and completed his BS1: $1000 in a savings account. He advises to stop all saving and pay off debt. But I'm inclined to build up a emergency fund of at least $5000 before tackling the debt. Thoughts? I did a budget and I have about $300 left a month to either put in savings or pay down debt. The interest rate on the loan is 10.89% and the credit card has 0% interest until November then it goes up to 29%. I'm inclined to pay off the credit card then start building savings. [link] [comments]  |
| Would Eloping Help With My Cost of School? Posted: 01 Mar 2019 06:42 PM PST I go to a private college that actually beat out all of my other options, even in-state because of their awesome financial aid. At least, they did last year when I applied. Then my parents' job situation changed and cut my "need" in half. Financial aid, like subsidized loans and other scholarships, that I was counting on increasing throughout my years went away completely. I still have an institutional grant, but my cost is over $27k for next year. The year after, my brother will be going to college and it should change my cost back to something more managable. I am also planning on getting married before that school year, so either way I predict my aid will significantly increase. So now the big question: Would pushing the wedding forward a year help my aid enough? It costs about $10k to live on campus, and I have previously applied to live off for next year but my request was denied. To live off campus before my 3rd year, I would either need to live with my parents (500mi away, not happening) or live with a spouse. In addition to cutting that cost, I would also become eligible for some of the scholarships I lost when my EFC increased. I'm not worried about divorce, we plan on getting married more or less soon anyway. I'm not asking for life advice, just financial advice. Thanks so much. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 01 Mar 2019 06:29 PM PST Financially, my husband and I are sound but just a few months ago, we weren't making enough to pay bills so we were constantly under in our account. We made a massive change in our we operated our finances and now we are doing pretty good! However, after having several problems with our roommate, one of them being not paying his bills on time or even in full, which helped cause some of our misfortunes. Well, today he packed up everything, including stuff not his (but I don't really care because we were wanting new dishes once he moved out anyway since he misuses and destroys everything he touches). Unfortunately for us, we are now having to make up for bills he yet again, did not pay in full. Only gave us $50 for apartment, electric, and internet, when his stuff altogether is at least $300. He left his couch, so we are going to clean it up and sell it. But he also left the room in a disgusting manner, with dirty foot prints on the wall (that are near impossible to clean, I've made a dent but it's been after hours of scrubbing. I'm worried the complex is going to charge us for damages but idk if we can pay that right now. And our lease is up at the end of June. We can't break our lease, because it costs too much out of pocket for us to transfer rooms ($1600 approx.) What should we do to make sure we can make until June? TLDR: Roommate left us high and dry, wanting advice on how to keep afloat until lease is up June 27th. [link] [comments]  |
| First Time Getting A Car Loan, Am I doing this right? Posted: 01 Mar 2019 07:02 PM PST So my car I've had for the last 5 years cant handle the icy weather and is a 22 year old rear wheel drive. It's valued at $400 my KBB so I'm in the market and talked to my bank today and was given the pre-approved for a auto loan. I have an appointment to see the car tomorrow that I've been looking at through KBB. I'm looking at 13,4XX on a 3.99% loan at my bank. I'll be looking at payments of 245-255 a month, the higher being if I get the gap coverage which is $400 added onto the loan. The vehicle is a Certified Preowned 2017 Hyundai Elantra with 44k miles. I'm thinking of taking the gap coverage and I can probably make a higher payment then the minimum. I'll be putting $600 or so down. Your thoughts? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 01 Mar 2019 06:58 PM PST I'm 24 just got my first job. Any recommendations on what I should invest in when I don't have that much money yet? I'd say I could put in about USD300-500 a month. Right now I just have a savings account but I feel like I should be doing more while I'm young-ish. Fyi I live in HK so a lot of stock trading options are not available to me. [link] [comments]  |
| Moving from High-Yield Savings to Passive Investing Posted: 01 Mar 2019 12:25 PM PST I currently have a 401k through my company and a personal savings account with a high-yield savings bank. I am using the pre-set 401k portfolio based on my age, and it is making significantly better returns than my savings account, which is running around 1.5%. To that end, I was wondering how (and through what tools) I would be able to reallocate some of my existing savings account into a more aggressive fund structured similarly to my 401k. I already have an emergency fund, and these excess savings funds are ones I'm ready to effectively invest and forget. I'm aware that this may seem like a low effort post. I've tried navigating the side bar, but really wasn't able to find something that wasn't more about active investing. I'm just looking to structure this investment similar to my 401k, which I've been happy with. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 01 Mar 2019 12:35 PM PST As part of pledging a fraternity, I paid $700 in dues to a national fraternity organization from my personal savings (checking account). I was removed from the pledging process and officially am not a pledge/affiliated with them anymore. I am in talks with my past pledge educator to get a refund, but if they refuse then I'm screwed. Would refuting the charge from my bank be an option to get my money back? Edit: Sorry guys, I didn't explain my situation properly. While I voluntarily complied, it was not my decision to leave, I was "dropped" and respected and understood their wishes and complied by removing myself from all their groupchats/communications. [link] [comments]  |
| Fell for Social Security Scammer Posted: 01 Mar 2019 05:11 PM PST Hi guys, My father just told me that he unfortunately fell for the "Social Security office trying to contact you" scam and gave his full information: First Name, Last Name, Full SSN, and DOB. As far as I know, they can sell this information and/or use it for social engineering. Is there anything we can do at this point? Thank you very much! [link] [comments]  |
| Question about Ally Bank savings account Posted: 01 Mar 2019 11:09 AM PST Please help a newbie understand their math. I have $10,000 in Ally savings account that pays around 2% interest. So, I calculate 10,000 x .02 = $200 in interest. However, they are only paying $20 in interest. Can someone please explain this to me? Many thanks for the help! [link] [comments]  |
| How do I start making my money make more money? Posted: 01 Mar 2019 04:13 AM PST Hi all I'm looking for some advice from people with real experience. I'm 26 and earn approx 25k a year, I live with my girlfriend who earns around the same. We both have no debt and a decent amount of disposable income. On average I myself will have approx £800-900 disposable each month. I've saved up £10k and don't really know what I should be doing with my money. I literally just move money in to an online savings account with my bank each month and let it sit there with very little interest gain (approx 77p a month). I am enrolled with my employers pension plan putting away about £50 a month at the moment which they match and add an additional £100. I could look at increasing this contribution which wouldn't be a bad idea but I am wondering if there's anything I could look in to that will make me see a faster return. Any advice/links to resources will be useful, I just feel that I'm wasting time at the moment when I could be seeing more return on the money I'm saving. Thanks for taking your time to read! [link] [comments]  |
| How do you know if you have to pay taxes quarterly? (US) Posted: 01 Mar 2019 06:44 PM PST I work full time making 50K where my taxes are normally withheld. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 01 Mar 2019 01:19 PM PST Did I give a family member bad advice? She got a credit card when she started college. I helped her apply back then and I remember the original credit line was $2000.(which was a lot of someone who had zero credit history, fresh out of high school) I told her that it was best to pay off the balance whenever she can. I meant paying off the statement as soon as it arrives each month, of course... Well... she followed my advice and more. I just found out that she has been paying off her credit card the day after EVERY purchase for 4 years. For example, she fills up her car with $50 of gas. The every next day, she logs into the credit card account and pays off the $50. She used the card for everything at any place that accepts credit cards. That included her university which accepts credit cards for tuition/fees and everything else. Again, she paid off every purchase the very next day. She showed me her statements last week. During the last 4 years, she has made over $70,000 in purchase(which included part of tuition not covered by any scholarship/grant that she received). Her states are unusually long because each purchased is followed immediately by a payment of the same amount. During some months, she made payments every single day for the entire month. I'm afraid to ask... did she damage her credit somehow by doign this for the last 4 years? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 01 Mar 2019 12:05 PM PST Hello PF, I (m28) am looking to purchase a house this summer in the 180k to 230k range. My current salary is $53,000 and I have been here for 4 years. My job is very stable and I am in the process of receiving a job reclassification which would mean a slight raise. Credit score is 760+. In January, I moved back with my parents in order to save as much as possible for closing costs and a down payment. Plus, I'd like to keep a good portion of that in pocket for maintenance expenses. I expect to be at about $20k-$25k total by this summer. Currently my only liability is my $250/month car loan. Quick facts: Biweekly take home pay - $1,434 Car payment - $250/mo Car insurance - $95/mo Roth IRA - $100/mo (Also have a deferred comp and pension through work calculated before take home pay) I've ran the calculators and I think I can do it, but does anyone have any cautionary advice or experience? There is a 90% chance that my girlfriend and brother would live with me. If so, they would pay rent in the amount of $300-$400/mo. I also want to be sure I'd be financially ok if that didn't happen. EDIT: Monthly Budget: Income - $3107 after tax Car loan - $253 Car Insurance - $95 Roth IRA - $100 Pension and deferred - $643 (before take home pay) So currently I am at a 23.9% savings/retirement rate and a 8% liability rate. My total left over per month after everything is $2,659. With that $2,659: PITI - $1,300 to $1,600 (assuming $14,000 down, I used a Zillow calculator for my area) Utilities - $300 So, in total I would have $759 to $1,059 leftover for food and other expenses. I will eventually increase my savings rate but for now I think it's pretty good. Plus if I receive rent I would have even more to put away for regular maintenance and unforeseen repairs. Am I missing anything major? [link] [comments]  |
| Feedback on my investment strategies? Posted: 01 Mar 2019 03:51 PM PST So I have never really gotten feedback on what I've been doing the past 4 years in terms of my own personal investments. So I'd love if the community could give some feedback on what I should do differently (if anything). Index Funds: Vanguard Mid-Cap Value - $25,521.07 Vanguard Total International Stock - $25,092.42 Vanguard Total Stock Market - $47,347.92 Total: $97,962.41 ~ 1/3 of my monthly income goes towards these 401K: $32,258.12 ~ I haven't touched this in a year (I'm really unsure of what to do with it) Misc Accts (Wealthfront, Robinhood, Acorns, etc.) $16,327.23 Emergency Savings Acct: $10,000 So my income is around $6k/month and my rent is ~$2k (HCOL area). I'm most concerned with my approach on 401k and Index funds. Do you think I should be doing something else instead of 401k (Roth IRA, etc.) or the index fund? Everything is basically on autopilot so i'm just trying to figure out where to adjust to maximize my odds of success. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 01 Mar 2019 01:02 PM PST Hi folks, I have a question about trading off rent prices and commute length, and wanted this sub's opinions on whether it's worth keeping a long commute at a lower rent, or a negligible commute and a higher rent. To give some context: My spouse and I are currently living in the Boston area. 25 mile commute for each of us, takes about 1.5 hours one-way. We currently live in a 1 bed unit that's relatively small, and it costs $1800/month. A 2 bed unit in our vicinity costs $2000~$2200/month. We're looking to move closer to our jobs, and will bring our commutes down to 5-20 minutes (depending on the specific rental), living within a 2 mile radius from our jobs. We're also looking to bump up to a 2 bed unit, which will bring us to about $2400~3000/month for rent. We know there are rentals that are cheaper, but that's not the point of this post, as we have specific boxes we want ticked for what we rent. The numbers in the context above are an apples to apples comparison of prices for the types of rentals we want based on a few realtors we've spoken to. The point of the post is to better understanding the pros and cons of having a higher rent for a shorter commute. Have you taken a cheaper rent for longer commute or a shorter commute for higher rent? How do you see the value of commute vs rent? [link] [comments]  |
| Lazy Portfolio Returns Feb 2019 Posted: 01 Mar 2019 08:24 PM PST I have been tracking the returns for the Vanguard lazy portfolio returns for Aggressive (90% Stock / 10% Bond), Balanced (60% Stock / 40% Bond), and Conservative (30% Stock / 70% Bond). I think everyone should pay attention to these and use them as their portfolio benchmarks, especially for those that pick their own stocks. Here are the year to date returns so far for 2019: Aggressive: 10.2% Balanced: 7.0% Conservative: 3.9% Market Returns: S&P 500: 11.4% Russell 2000: 17.1% US Aggregate Bond: 0.8% MSCI Emerging Markets: 8.4% [link] [comments]  |
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